Today we will talk about Egypt, but to go into the details of the reigns of the dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs, we will not write an infinite number of dissertations about this and the same number of scientific titles and all kinds of awards have been received. I want to investigate what lies on the surface and is available to any Internet user, but only the user must look at all the greatness of ancient Egypt from a different angle.
Temples map. David Roberts.
So, our research is a visual assessment of temple complexes and a comparative analysis of the colors of "ancient" Egypt. And for this we will go to the New York State Library, many documents have been digitized here, including those on Egypt. We will also consider modern photographs of those antiquities.
We will take as the basis of our research the works of the artist David Roberts, who in 1838 sketched the ancient temples of Egypt, Nubia, then in London released an album of colored lithographs dedicated to these historical objects. And now we have an amazing opportunity to compare these objects in a time interval of 180 years.
The first thing we will study will be the temple complex in Luxor. Luxor Temple is one of the monuments of culture and architecture of Ancient Egypt. It is located on the site of the now defunct capital of this state - the city of Thebes. Luxor temple is supposedly built already in the era of the New Kingdom - in the 14-11th centuries BC. Those. about three and a half thousand years ago. Before us is a lithograph by David Roberts "The Great Entrance to the Temple of Luxor"
Large entrance to the Luxor Temple. David Roberts.
it looks like this name shows either mockery, or irony, really "big", the entrance is littered with sand and broken bricks, and even if the traveler will step on a camel cake. The frescoes on the wall are barely noticeable; behind the obelisk one can see one of the statues of Ramses 2, chest-high, immersed in sand. People on the background of his torso seem to be dwarfs.
Promotional video:
Lithograph by David Roberts One of two statues of Ramses 2. Luxor 1838
The man with the pole is perhaps a guide, with this instrument he probed the sand so that he would not fall into a deep cavity. Indeed, as in the drawings of Piranesi.
Luxor. The Great Gate 1852
In 1858, the Ramses were almost dug up, and in 1870 broken stone was removed around them, so that tourists could better see the former greatness.
Well, in modern times everything is very beautiful and millions of tourists pass by and see, "Yes, this is a big gate."
Luxor, Ears of Memnon 1870
Luxor statues of Ramses today.
The columns of the temple suffered the least. And from the side of the Nile, the temple does not look so brought up. Well, so that tourists would have an idea of Ramses 2, there is a statue with a whole face inside the temple. The next temple in Luxor is the Ramessium temple, dedicated to the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ramses 2,
Fragment of the great Memnon at Thebes.
1857 Thebes, Ramessium.
in the center of the lithograph we see a fragment of a giant sculpture of Memnon, as well as fragments of other statues dedicated to this pharaoh. You can analyze the structure of the statues, they made up a single whole with the columns, the parts of the columns were cast in separate shaped blocks, and then assembled, as a result, a finished sculpture was obtained, a binder solution between the elements was not technologically provided for, therefore we see the details of this giant Lego scattered everywhere -constructor. At the moment, many of the details of the columns are plastered and the effect of the designer is not so visible. The large sculpture of Ramses 2, which we see, as the torso is made of solid stone, according to official data, it was cut from a piece of rock, and in my opinion and the opinion of other alternative researchers, it is cast from concrete.
Not far from the Luxor temple and the Ramesseum, the Amon-Ra temple in Karnak is located and naturally David Roberts could not miss such a story. In the era of the New Kingdom three and a half, three thousand years ago, this place served as the main sanctuary of Ancient Egypt. Karnak was not just a religious place, it was a royal residence, an administrative center, the main treasury and the heart of the Egyptian capital, Thebes.
Thebes, Karnak 1838
But the view of this temple is even more depressing. Its side walls have been badly damaged, the columns are piled one on top of the other, so look, according to the domino principle, everything will be folded into one big heap. To get into the hypostyle hall, you need to go down from the dune with great warnings. Maybe the artist exaggerated such destruction? But not in the photograph of 1858, we see exactly the same ruins.
Karnak hypostyle hall 1858
And if you look at the hypostyle hall from the south, then the similarity with the destroyed houses of the Great Patriotic War will be complete. It can also be seen that there are significant temple buildings under the sand and rubble.
In 1936, everything was already cleaned up and you can safely walk in the temple, only there are almost no murals, the pylons seem to be concrete, only occasionally there are porticoes of that era and on some of them you can see frescoes in color, which is a very rare phenomenon, about the color in the ancient We'll talk about Egypt a little later.
Karnak 1936
Buried, destroyed temples, somewhere we have already met this. Yes, the engravings of Giovanni Batista Piranesi, the paintings of Hubert Robert, and other artists depict the destroyed Europe, and the lithographs of Carl Bossoli depict the ruins of fortresses, churches, palaces of the Crimea. And how does ancient Egypt differ from the destroyed Europe captured by the artists of the 18th century? Only by the fact that progressive Europe reached him only at the very end of this 18th century, on the bayonets of Napoleon's army.
Napoleon. Jerome Jean-Leon-Oedipus.
And we already know the reason for this apocalypse, it is a giant wave that came from the Arctic Ocean. Many articles have already been written about this, in particular: Andrei Kadykchansky "Kursk will really drown"
The temple of Horus or Horus in Edfu looks as much as possible covered with sand on the lithographs of David Roberts, according to official data, built during the Ptolemaic period in the 3rd century BC …
Temple of Horus at Edfu.
Construction continued for 180 years with long interruptions. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Temple of Horus was abandoned. It was covered with sand, and other structures were erected on top.
Edfu, sand under the portico.
As can be seen in the lithograph, on the sand dunes one could get under the very arch of the temple.
View from under the portico of Edfu Temple.
And it was considered special chic to capture oneself against the backdrop of magnificent ruins. The columns and porticoes are well preserved and even have paintings on them. It is a circle of the sun with wings, representing the god Horus. In zoomorphic terms, this is a falcon or a man with a falcon's head.
Edfu, Temple of Horus 1858
In 1858, the temple looks about the same as in the lithograph; in 1860, the temple was excavated by the Louvre employee Auguste Mariette.
Edfu, Temple of Horus 1860
The Edfu Temple begins with massive gates called pylons. They are covered with well-preserved ancient drawings and inscriptions. On both sides of the main entrance there are niches for flags. In front of the gate there are two black granite statues of the god Horus in the form of huge falcons.
The next covered with sand is the temple of the goddess Hathor, in Dendera.
Side entrance to the Temple of Tiffoney at Dendera.
It is dedicated to the goddess of love, arts, femininity and motherhood. Hathor, as a rule, was depicted in the guise of a cow, with a sun disk shining between the horns.
On the lithograph, the pylon of the temple is covered with sand almost to the very top, in order to pass under it you need to tilt your head. And people just rest in its shadow.
Temple in Dendera. David Roberts.
The sanctuary of the goddess is also covered with sand, and people get into it simply by climbing over the side wall, the upper edge, which is flush with the desert.
Dendera, Temple of Hathor.
Temple at Dendera Hathoric Column.
The faces of the goddess Hathor are knocked down, but David Roberts was able to sketch a column with them, and thanks to this we can contemplate the heavenly beauty of the goddess of love, beauty, art.
Dendera.
In the temple itself, colored paints are very well preserved, and only thanks to this preservation, David Roberts was able to sketch in detail the faces of the goddess Hathor and now we know in detail what colors were applied to specific bas-reliefs and this is very important for further research.
Kom Ombo is a temple located right on the Nile coast near the Egyptian city of Aswan. In Roberts' lithograph dated November 21, 1838, this temple is depicted with a luxurious hypostyle hall with 15 thick columns and a cornice depicting two winged solar disks.
Kom-Ombo 1838-21-11 lithograph.
Here are just the columns of the temple and look overwhelmed. On top of the columns are the heraldic lilies of Upper Egypt and the papyrus symbolizing the Nile delta. Most of the roof of the hypostyle hall has survived, on which various celestial images are carved. Also, the colored frescoes on the sun disc are still visible. On photographs-daggeratypes with indications of the year 1838 and 1837, this temple looks similar.
Comb-Ombo, daggeratype.
Kom Ombo, the temple today.
In modern times, the temple looks spectacular despite the numerous chips.
Between the city of Aswan and the first rapids of the Nile River, until recently, there was a small island of Philae, famous for its monumental structures.
General view of the island of Philae.
Until recently, it was there that the Temple of Isis was located, saved from flooding during the construction of the Aswan Dam. The Egyptians believed that the island of Philae was the place of eternal sleep of the god Osiris, and the way there was forbidden for mere mortals. Only priests had the right to conduct sacred rituals here.
Philae Temple of Isis.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the island was partially flooded with the expansion of the reservoir; in the 70s, the island of Philae was absorbed by the waters of the Aswan reservoir. But the ancient monuments that were on it were saved from destruction by the efforts of UNESCO. The Temple of Isis and Trajan's "Kiosk" were sawn into many blocks and moved to a higher location.
Looking at the lithographs of David Roberts, you can see how well the paint in the Temple of Isis was preserved.
Philae, Temple of Isis, columns lithograph.
If you pay attention, I have always voiced the time when the temples were built. The time interval of construction is from three and a half thousand years ago to two and a half thousand years, and some temples were being completed already during the period of Roman rule in our era. But the temples, spaced apart from each other by a one and a half thousand time interval, look almost identical, differing only in divine frescoes, cartouches applied on the walls. And many of them still have paint. And here, in my opinion, is one of the mysteries of this sand-covered country.
And the very thing that will help us to unravel it will help us not to eat the Egyptian si … no, not power, but blue! Yes, yes, the most used paint of ancient Egypt, symbolizing the sky in which the golden disk of the sun god Ra shines!
Egyptian fresco.
In addition to the blue dye, of course, others were also used, so we will consider the technology for obtaining various shades of paints.
Most Egyptian dyes were finely crushed natural minerals, which were diluted not in oil, but in water, adding glue, gum or egg white. The ancient Egyptians used black, blue, brown, green, gray, pink, red, white and yellow paints.
The main blue paint was an artificial frit (Glass Granular Mass), which included crystalline calcium and copper silicate. Egyptian blue proves that the ancients had chemical production and mining. An artificial blue pigment was obtained by heating a mixture of calcium carbonate, a component containing copper (malachite), silicate sand and potassium carbonate to 850-950 C. Another type was obtained from azurite by grinding it into powder. (Azurite is a naturally occurring copper carbonate. It was used before the artificial frit was invented.)
Egyptian blue.
Green paint was of two types: first it was made from powdered malachite, a copper ore mined in Egypt, and then a green frit, similar to blue, appeared. The white paint was usually calcium carbonate (naturally marble, chalk, limestone and calcite). Black was carbon, which was sometimes soot and sometimes crushed charcoal. Gray was obtained by mixing white and black paint. Red paint is red ocher that was either naturally occurring or was made by burning yellow ocher. In the Roman period, red lead oxide (red lead oxide) was used, and pink paint was obtained from krappa.
A set of minerals for paints.
Brown paint is a natural ocher. The yellow paint was of two types - one was a yellow ocher of natural origin, and the other was brought from other countries.
A study of ancient Egyptian painting and fresco painting showed that it was not oil painting, but glue painting. Therefore, the paints for it had to be made using some kind of adhesive. The materials available and suitable for that era were limited to glue gelatin, gum - pea fruit extract and albumin - egg white. It is known that such dyes as soot and red and yellow ocher adhere quite well to plaster and stone when dry, and ocher in a wet state is even better, so they do not need an adhesive base.
Other ancient dyes such as blue and green frits, azurite, malachite do not stick to the base without a binder. Therefore, the above-mentioned organic adhesives were used as such a binder.
You've probably already guessed where I'm getting at. And I will formulate the question. Was it possible that the colors as we see them in lithographs by David Roberts for at least two thousand years on the walls, columns of temples, exposed to direct sunlight and constantly blown by the wind, in the stream of which contain numerous abrasive particles in the form of sand?
Dender, Temple of Hathor Columns.
As we now know, the most resistant paints are those that do not have an organic (adhesive) base. They are black, white and various ocher. As you know, many rock paintings in the caves are made with coal and red ocher and they are many thousands of years old. But this is in a protected space, where sunlight does not enter and there is no negative influence of the atmosphere. But the Sun burns out any coating at a rate of about 10 microns per year. Nothing is eternal. And the wind with sand will simply knock out, for example, black paint from the surface. But what about the Egyptian blue, how it behaves over time. In some cases, Egyptian blue paints, which are usually stable, changed their color. So, for example, the images of the shamrock on the so-called "cow bed" from the tomb of Tutankhamun, which are currently dark brown, almost black, undoubtedlywere once blue;
Cow bed Tutankhamun's tomb.
there is still a blue color under the black, and since the substance is granular and corresponds to the sample for copper, it is possible that it is decomposed blue frit.
Let's just compare the lithographs of the temples of ancient Egypt by David Roberts and modern photographs of the same historical sites 180 years apart. As a first example, consider the images in the Temple of Hathor. So in 1838, in the upper parts of the columns of the temple, in direct sunlight, on the headdresses of the goddess, the main blue background, as well as yellow and orange stripes, is clearly visible.
Dendera, temple of Hathor columns with headdresses.
The red disc of the sun with blue wings is clearly visible. In the interior of the temple, these same elements have even richer colors.
And what do we have in our time? And on the same elements of the columns, there is no paint, only in the most darkened areas the blue turned into small gray specks. The colors on the solar disk with wings also completely disappeared. So nothing lasts forever under the sun's disk, but without wings. True, the colors in the temple itself have survived, but their color has noticeably faded. Unfortunately, their fate is also a foregone conclusion, in another fifty years and these colors will disappear, like those that were under direct light.
Dender, Temple of Hathor, portico head.
We can trace another vivid example of paint fading in the images of deities in the temple of Isis on the island of Philae for 180 years.
Great Portico of the Temple of Philae Numibia.
On the lithograph of 1838, we see bright saturated colors of green lily petals, crowning columns, on the ceiling, bright blue-red heavenly wings of the god Ra, stars, the goddess Isis herself with blue heavenly wings. Those. we see here the Egyptian mineral paints about which I spoke above.
Ceiling, portico, columns, temple of Isis, Philae island.
What do these columns look like now? Completely monochrome. But why, because they stood inside the temple and at least what should have been preserved. According to my version, during the dismantling of the temple in the seventies of the twentieth century, the columns could be stored in the open air and the paints burned out very quickly, so now we do not see anything.
Philae, Temple of Isis, today.
We see a similar picture on the columns in the temple of Ramses II in Karnak, in the temples of the two triads of deities in Kom Ombo, in the temple of Horus in Edfu.
Karnak, a comparison of temples.
Kom Ombo, a comparison of temples.
Edfu, a comparison of the temples.
I would like to dwell in more detail on the temples of Seti 1, Ramses 2, in Abydos, located next to the famous temple of Osirion.
Abydos, Temple of Seti 1, today.
Many colored bas-reliefs are very well preserved in these temples. It would seem that there is nothing special inside the enclosed space, the colors have been preserved and we are now in color, so to speak, in good quality, we can observe the life of Pharaoh Seti 1 and his interaction with the gods.
Bas-reliefs in the Temple of Seti 1, Abydos.
Abydos, Temple of Seti 1, 1858, still destroyed hypostyle hall.
Abydos, entrance to the hall of the god Osiris 1875
Bas-reliefs in the temple of Seti 1 comparison.
Yes, everything is so, but the fact is that for a very long time the temple was without a roof, in a dilapidated state. And sunlight has hit the colored bas-reliefs for hundreds of years. The black-and-white photographs were taken between 1875 and 1860s. The details of the bas-reliefs, contrasting in shades, are clearly visible on them.
Bas-reliefs in the Temple of Seti 1, comparison 1860
Yes, when you compare them in the open air and in the temple under the roof, you can see that the colors look identical. On a color postcard of the early 20th century Ramses Temple, you can see a variety of colors.
Abydos, Temple of Ramses 2.
And there are plenty of places like this in Egypt. From all of the above, we can conclude: "And Egypt is not at all ancient!" And how old is it? According to my estimates, the Egyptian civilization was actively painting its temples at the beginning of the 18th century.
Meme. * And Egypt is not ancient! *
And to put an end to it, let's look at the lithograph of David Roberts "Sphinx".
Great Sphinx, Pyramids of Giza, David Roberts.
Under the hot Egyptian sun, under the constant blows of the desert wind, the mystical sphinx proudly holds its head, the royal Egyptian nemes is put on its head. The remnants of Egyptian blue are clearly visible on it, the eyes of the sphinx are summed up with black paint, which is noticeably faded in the sun, and the pupil is also brightly drawn on the eye socket. On the cheekbones, the color of the already burnt red ocher is noticeable. Of course now only the color of the sandstone itself remains.
Head of the Sphinx with painted face and nemes.
The Great Sphinx today.
And what is the conclusion from all of the above? And such that the paint on the temples was applied not three, not two thousand years ago or even five hundred, but only three hundred and fifty four hundred years ago. Those. ancient Egypt is not at all ancient. Yes, maybe individual temples were built about a thousand years ago, but they were maintained at the proper, divine level. Ancient Egyptian civilization continued to thrive under Peter the Great and erect incense for its numerous deities.
Therefore, at the end of the 18th century, Napoleon sought with a team of his scientists to snatch the technological power that remained from the defeated country.
Napoleon in the desert of Egypt.
And in the thirties of the 20th century, the governors of Hitler with their scientists from the anenerbe wool the tombs and temples for the same reason.
Rommel in Egypt.
Of course, everything that I said above is my hypothesis and it does not coincide with the official version of history. A more extended video version of this article can be viewed in my film of the same name with very pleasant music. You will also see what the temples looked like in their heyday, from the paintings of Mark Milmore.
Author: Elena Topsida